Sunday, November 5, 2017

If you live in Boston, I'm sure you've visited the Boston Public Market, but did you know about The KITCHEN at Boston Public Market at the back of the market? The KITCHEN is managed by The Trustees, one of the largest owners and steward of agricultural land in Massachusetts and a founding member of Boston Public Market. The KITCHEN frequently holds hands-on cooking classes and educational experiences that highlight New England farmers, artisans, and chefs.
I recently got to attend a crepe making class with Saltbox Farm and the chefs from Saltbox Kitchen, their farm cafe in Concord, MA.
Since my mom was visiting me from Indonesia I took her along for the class.
Each table can fit four people and equipped with our own cutting boards, one induction stove per table, and the ingredients for our menu. The ingredients for The KITCHEN's cooking classes all come from the Boston Public Market, including some gorgeous oyster mushrooms for our crepes.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Ever wonder how to make prosciutto? Or what exactly a rillette is? Wonder no more, because Patina's Cafe Pinot in downtown Los Angeles is holding a monthly charcuterie class with their chef, Joe Vasiloff. Every month's class is different and I attended the one in February where we made duck breast prosciutto and duck rillette.

Making charcuterie means curing meat. And curing means you need curing salt. Vasiloff uses this salt recipe full of herbs that he learned from Chef Thomas Keller when he worked at Bouchon in Las Vegas and Beverly Hills.

Duck legs are cured in the salt for hours then confit-ed for the duck rillette. This is a hands-on class where you'd have to trim duck fat and learn how to wrap meats for hanging.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Evan Kleiman started "Pie a Day" on the KCRW Good Food blog a few years ago by making a pie a day for 100 days. That took off and culminated in an annual Pie Contest where home cooks compete. Sherry Yard is one of the best pastry chefs in LA. She's put in years at Spago but is now set to open her own bakery in Culver City. The two came together to give a pie making class at Culver City's New School of Cooking recently to raise funds for KCRW.

To be precise, they're raising funds for the 5th Annual Good Food Pie Contest, which will take place on Saturday, September 7 from 2-4pm at LACMA. If you want to enter, you can sign up before September 1 on the website, and the fee is $10 per entry! There's also a Kids and Vegan category.

I don't know a thing about making pie, but I can tell you what tips I learnt from the pie class! First off, the set up is pretty nice. A glass of sparkling wine greeted us as we were seated at the tables. There's a full table setting because we're not just watching a cooking demo, but will soon be eating three delicious pies while drinking more wine!

The pie class was completely sold out, so it was a full house, but most can see what they're doing pretty clearly on the overhead mirror.

First up is Evan Kleiman making her chicken pot pie (I will post the recipe tomorrow!)

So Evan uses part butter and part duck fat for her pie dough, genius! She passed it around so we can smell it.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

I LOVE tamales but I have a hard time to find ones that are just right for me. I want them filled with things I like, for example I'm always looking for a blue corn tamale but the ones here are usually only filled with cheese. So, when Ortega 120 offered me to attend one of their tamale making class, I thought it sounded fun. The tamale class is only held in December since tamales are apparently a holiday tradition. The chef said that his family would always say that way you will always have something to unwrap for Christmas!

The hands-on tamale class was completely full (and they were all women, which was kind of expected)

The $40 class also includes a glass of their house margarita and food

Ortega has their own masa, made with Canola oil so it's healthier but still moist. You can buy their masa to go at the restaurant, or you can also buy traditional masa at Mexican bakeries. They had prepared the masa for us and the filling which included chicken and beef tinga, chili and cheese. They provided the recipes for these fillings, but during the class all we had to do was assemble them.

Spreading the masa on the corn husk was harder than I expected at first, since you don't want it to be too thick, though eventually I got used to it.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

No, I'm not talking about going to Gaja and putting the batter on the grill, but actually making okonomiyaki from scratch! It's one of the many classes that Yoko Issasi teaches in her Japanese Foodstory class. Each of her small group class takes place in a small studio downtown, around a large wooden table that she outfitted herself.

OKONOMIYAKI RECIPE
First, you have to make the flour mix, which is:
1 cup or 4 oz of weak flour, can be substituted by cake flour
1 cup dashi stock, and ..

1/2 cup yamaimo (slimy yam)

If you've never had yamaimo .. it's a yam like you've never had. When you grate the yam, you will get a bowl of slimy stuff!

In a large bowl, put weak (or cake) flour with dashi stock. Whisk well until smooth, then add grated yamaimo and mix well.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Culinary College was back for its second run with chef Andrew Kirschner from the Wilshire Restaurant. Hosted by Los Angeles magazine and Snyder Diamond, the event is again hosted in the Snyder Diamond showroom in Santa Monica.

We start out with some appetizers prepared by Chef Bridget Bueche from Sub-Zero/Wolf.

First up: Wood plank salmon with miso base, mizuna, japanese long onions.Before the food was served, a large piece of salmon was displayed sitting on the wood plank, teasing us with the glaze and the smell.Each dish is paired with a wine, selected by Ian from Learn About Wine. Ian did not only pick wines that will go well with the dishes, he also made sure to choose affordable wines that you or I may actually go out and buy. The salmon was paired with a Pinot Noir from Sweeney Canyon.Sweeney Canyon is a family-owned vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County, near the Santa Ynez River, which gives their grapes a unique complex flavor.

While eating and sipping, we watched chef Bueche whip up our next dish using a Japanese claypot.Just watching the chef season the beef and open up the claypot of the cooked beef was enough to get my appetite going.

Here it is: Claypot-baked, slow-cooked beef with craked pepper, coriander, mushrooms.This was amazing! The beef was so tender, and the mushrooms were great. I just wish the dish was bigger :P The mushrooms are Hokto mushrooms grown in San Marcos, CA. The dish was paired with a 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon, grown in the Malibu canyons.

After licking our dish clean, we were ushered into the back room, the 'main stage' where tables are beautifully set.

Because of the number of attendees, the class is not hands-on, but you can watch chef Kirschner prepare the dishes and take notes. Note the slanted mirror on top of the stove - so you can watch what's going on there too!Chef Kirschner showed us how to prepare two dishes.The first is a Shrimp Summer Roll with Chili Garlic Dipping Sauce.Paired with a Curran Gewurtztraminer from Santa Ynez Valley.

Second course is the Steamed Black Mussels in Red Curry Coconut Broth (find the recipe here)These mussels are certainly delicious and I can see why they are so popular at the restaurant. The curry broth is bold in flavor yet not too spicy. I'll definitely order this at Wilshire Restaurant. Here the dish was paired with a Sweeney Canyon Chardonnay.

We all came home with a swag bag filled among others with a bottle of 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon and the newest Los Angeles magazine.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Los Angeles Magazine has partnered up with Snyder Diamond to host a series of cooking classes called Culinary College. I was invited to attend their first class featuring Chef Patrick Healy from the Buffalo Club in Santa Monica.

The event is held at the Snyder Diamond store in Santa Monica.

The night starts off with a selection of wines from LearnAboutWine. Ian Blackburn was there pouring the wines himself. We started with a nice chilled 2008 Dashwood Sauvignon Blanc, Marlorough, New Zealand and a 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon, Malibu Mountain Estate.

The rest of the wine during the cocktail hour was paired with three hors d'oeuvres that Chef Bridget Bueche of Sub-Zero/Wolf was cooking in the showroom kitchen.Two of the three hors d'oeuvres focused on mushrooms:

King Trumpet MushroomPaired with a 2007 Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon "Rose" Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Shrimp paired with a 2007 Gerhard Riesling, Kabinett, Rheingau, Germany.The Riesling was very sweet, perfect for a dessert wine. I noted to myself to find a bottle of this since I love sweet, dessert wines.

The cooking class itself was set up in a back room at Snyder Diamond, where the tables for attendants have been beautifully set.This isn't a hands-on class but the recipes are provided as you follow chef Healy cooking at the mock kitchen.

Here's what chef Patrick Healy has to say about picking the right corn:

The first dish chef Healy made that night was this Summer Corn Pudding with Rock Shrimp Salsa w/ tomatillo sauce, paired with a 2006 Leasingham Dry Riesling "Magnus", Clare Valley.The corn pudding was dense and creamy, and it was great with the nicely spiced (but not spicy) rock shrimp in tomatillo sauce. I do love corn, so although I was late for my dinner, I waited to taste this dish and it was worth the wait.

Vanilla pudding with caramel was coming up next, but I had to leave in order to make it to dinner.

All attendants also received a nice swag bag containing 1 bottle of 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon (wine in a goody bag! That's a first for me!), Paulette macaroons (arguably one of the best in LA), the newest issue of the L.A. Mag, lip balms, etc.The Culinary College series will resume on July 15 featuring chef Andrew Kirschner of the Wilshire Restaurant, and on August 19th featuring chef Jason Travi from Fraiche and Riva. Each class costs $50 and if the first class is any indication, is well worth the education, food, wine, and swag.